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West Surrey Racing
West Surrey Racing is a UK-based motorsport team run by New Zealander Dick Bennetts. He is responsible for masterminding the careers of such names as Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen, Jonathan Palmer, Rubens Barrichello, Maurício Gugelmin and Eddie Irvine with his involvement in F3 and a racing academy in the 80s and 90s. Founded in 1981, WSR has won more than 70 races in Formula 3 and more than 100 class and outright wins in the BTCC. History of British Formula Three 1990 (Häkkinen, Fittipaldi, Tanaka) In 1990, the team fielded perhaps one of its greatest champions ever, Mika Häkkinen, who dominated the season along with his countryman Mika Salo and would go on to win two Formula One world championship titles in 1998 and 1999. Häkkinen won 9 out of 17 rounds this season. He drove so brilliantly that he won the title at the 15th round of the championship at Donington with two rounds remaining, Fittipaldi finished 4th overall with one additional race victory while Tanaka's season was difficult, with only four points scores and multiple retirements, causing the Japanese driver to fall to 11th in the championship. 1991 (Gené, Diniz, Barrichello) driving for West Surrey Racing in 1991.]] In 1991, the team fielded another successful champion, with Rubens Barrichello of Brazil battling with David Coulthard of Paul Stewart Racing for the championship. In the crucial stages of the championship, Coulthard had a miserable final two races, where he finished 22nd and last in the Silverstone race and retired in the finale at Thruxton, due to a broken front wing. This allowed Barrichello to capitalise from these failures to take the championship from the Scotsman by 8 points. The team's other two drivers, Jordi Gené and Pedro Diniz, finished in 4th and 12th respectively, with Gené finishing on the podium regularly but failing to win a single race and Diniz only scoring one point all season following a miserable campaign which was so bad he was dropped with two races remaining. 1992 (Goossens, Negri, Taylor, Smith) In 1992, the team had both Class A and B entries, with the Belgian Marc Goossens, the Brazilian Oswaldo Negri and the Britons James Taylor and Nigel Smith as its race driver. In Class A, Oswaldo Negri won the race at Snetterton from Pole Position and finished 4th in the Championship while Goossens finished in 6th. In Class B, Smith took 3rd place in the final standings, while Taylor only had a partial season and could only score 3 points. 1993 (Goossens, de la Rosa, Dufour) In 1993, the team retained Marc Goossens for the British F3 championship and signed up Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa and Frenchman Jérémie Dufour. Goossens endured a much better season, with race win at Thruxton and consistent podiums allowing him to take 3rd place at the end of the season despite being disqualified twice. Pedro de la Rosa had a good season and finished on the podium placings twice, ultimately finishing 7th overall, while Jérémie Dufour endured a difficult season and could only finish in the points in five races, despite a podium placing. 1994 (Radermecker, Salles) The team scaled back to two drivers in 1994, with the Belgian Vincent Radermecker and Brazilian Gualter Salles as its race drivers. In a season dominated by Stewart Racing and Jan Magnussen, Radermecker managed to score two race wins and finish runner-up to the great Dane, whilst Salles was a regular points-scorer but only finished on the podium once and ultimately finished the season 10th. 1995 (da Matta, Cunningham, Gené) driving for West Surrey Racing in 1995.]] One again, the team fielded three drivers; the Brazilian Cristiano da Matta, the American Brian Cunningham and the Spaniard Marc Gené (brother of Jordi Gené who had previously driven for the team in 1991). West Surrey Racing endured an okay season, with regular points finishes and podiums, but only winning one race, courtesy of Cristiano da Matta at Oulton Park. Da Matta was ultimately placed in 8th, Gene in 11th and Cunningham in 17th. Ultimately, it was their last season in British F3. Category:Teams